By Cristine Soto DeBerry

This past weekend, the country witnessed yet another senseless killing by a masked federal agent.

In Minneapolis, ICU nurse Alex Pretti – like elementary school parent and poet Renee Good before him – was trying to protect his neighbors when he was attacked and shot 10 times by federal officers.

These deaths – and the federal government’s refusal to conduct independent investigations or even share evidence with local authorities – expose a growing and dangerous reality: as federal immigration operations have escalated nationwide, accountability has collapsed, with officers committing egregious violations of the United States Constitution with impunity.

Federal agents have tear gassed peaceful protestors, detained individuals – including U.S. citizens – in horrific conditions, arrested children, assaulted the elderly, and threatened bystanders exercising basic First Amendment rights. According to recent reports, some ICE agents were even being trained to forcibly enter homes without warrants signed by judges – a blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment.

If it feels like some of these federal agents act like the Constitution doesn’t apply to them, it’s because, in most cases, it doesn’t – at least not in a way that allows victims meaningful recourse. We’re fighting to fix that dangerous loophole in California by passing the No Kings Act (Senate Bill 747), authored by State Senator Scott Wiener.

Under current law, if a state or local officer violates someone’s constitutional rights, the victim can sue for damages. But a series of Supreme Court decisions has stripped away that same remedy for federal officers, even for intentional, blatantly unconstitutional conduct.

Accountability should not depend on the badge an officer wears. The No Kings Act allows Californians to seek damages when any government officer – federal, state, or local – violates clearly established constitutional rights.

SB 747 does not create new rights, nor does it eliminate qualified immunity for any law enforcement officer. It simply enforces existing constitutional guarantees and ensures that federal officials are subject to the same constitutional limits as everyone else….